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Crossing the universe on earth

27/4/2020

I must say that I often think about the talent of youth and how dedication, discipline and a little adrenaline can take you very far.

My name is Felipe Ávila, 22 years old and I am proudly from Guadalajara. I love my country, the people who live in it and the desire we have to get ahead. If someone had told me 5 years ago that in the not too distant future I would meet astronauts, I would be in China knowing cutting-edge technology, there would be a pandemic or that I would know NASA, surely I would not have believed it.

However, I realize that you have to believe all that and much more, someone or even more importantly tells you, coming from you.

Life turns you around and you never know how far you could go. The passion for what I find attractive, interesting and captivating, since I was little has led me to risky places, situations that I did not want to repeat (others that would give anything to be repeated), a series of events and knowledge that I could not compare. Finding what you like many times is not easy and it can take time and that's how when I was at NASA for the first time in 2017, I realize that although I find the immense darkness of the universe, telescopes and spaceships wonderful, there is much more behind all this.

From a young age I believed that my dream would be to work in NASA facilities, to be immersed in the aerospace industry and to be closer to people who have inspired me throughout my life such as the legendary Neil Armstrong or Elon Musk. But it is true that when you stand in your dream and contemplate everything you did to get there, you find an inner emptiness even more gigantic than the place where you are and you only want to do more, to go further, overcome yourself. That was what I felt and I would love to know that you have felt it the most at some point in your life.

You don't have to be Gandhi, Hawking or Carlos Slim to go far. You don't even have to have a title. I think we all meet in our time and the reasons that get you out of bed every day will be what takes you to NASA, Mars or some exoplanet. The first step is to believe it.

I am a faithful believer in the law of attraction: you attract what you think. And although sometimes it has not helped me, I still believe that everything comes if you keep firm where you want to go or what you want to have, despite the fact that the path is a complete maze.

It is under these beliefs that since my first participation in the IASP 2017 in Houston, TX., An unforgettable experience for many reasons, and to date I have seen how valuable time is and that it has to nurture the mind, never settle for what you have and get out of the comfort zone. Fortunately, my team and I took first place during the competition in 2017 by presenting our project on a plan to reach Europe, the moon of Jupiter and to be able to habit it.

Felipe Avila

Student, entrepreneur and human under construction. At the age of 22, Felipe Avila is studying the last year of his bachelor’s degree in Nanotechnology Engineering at the Universidad de Guadalajara, CUTonala campus.

His vision for help people and passion for technology and science have led him to develop different projects from different areas of knowledge. 2017 would be the impetus that would take Felipe's unstoppable academic career to new levels, since together with his team he were the winners of a Scholarship to attend in the International Air and Space Program (IASP) in Houston, TX., where he would find a great opportunity to expand knowledge, create contacts and discover new horizons.

This is how since 2017 Felipe Ávila has attended in three editions of the IASP and is currently developing high-impact technological projects in the space sector with UDEG SPACE, an academic community of which he is cofounder. In adition, he is a candidate to participate in the Summer 2020 Research at AMES - NASA in California, United States.

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After a moment of reflection on where I was going with my life after knowing a little about the place that I believed was my dream, I decided to do more. It was there that having lived in NASA territory opened my eyes not to the universe, but to the world and the needs that are in it. Having participated in the IASP declared a before and after in my life. Definitely. I know that I will be able to return to the Johnson Space Center one day, but the moments shared with people, places visited and lessons learned are those that I will not be able to repeat with the same feeling and time. And so it was very valuable and meant so much to me.

From that moment I decided to triple the knowledge I had been developing since before, learn more, live more, know more. I had no idea what awaited me the following month and it was fine, because I was sure that any path would take me where I wanted (slightly quoting the Cat from Alice in Wonderland, one of my favorites books). This was how months later I would find myself participating in workshops, programs and projects in Robotics, Design, Programming, renewable energy, Entrepreneurship, Project development, Radioastrophysics. My passion for technology grew to the point of taking me to China with the largest Communications Company in the World; HUAWEI and being able to experience the technology of today and tomorrow.

During my participation in 2018 and 2019 IASP program, I won something bigger than the prize in the competition: being able to see friends participate and achieve their dreams, knowing that I am able to get where I am going, living with colleagues who would later become great accomplices, friends and amaze me again with the similarity of life in different parts of the world, even though it might seem that they are so changing.

I am currently cofounder of a large community of students from the University of Guadalajara; UDEG SPACE, where I have found in them a new family and we share with others the passion and love for space technology. We are united by our alma mater and a taste for space, which is why we developed MARK I, a space rover that will compete in the University Rover Challenge 2021 in Utah, United States, in record time of less than 4 months. Inexperienced, logistics and workplace issues; only the passion to see our knowledge reflected at a new level and to improve ourselves doing what we like.

UDEG SPACE was born with the purpose of being more than a student community. We want to promote the hidden talent that exists in all young people and make them see that we do not need to live in First World countries or study in world-class Universities to bring out the best in us. We want to share what we know, our experience and from it, create more.

These months have been hard in many terms and I hope that soon not everything will be as before, that it will be better. I am waiting for results to be able to participate in a research stay at AMES - NASA, where I was one of the 4 selected nationally by the Mexican Space Agency. If I participate, I will support the research of advanced sensors that apply Nanotechnology for space and ground use.

This journey has been tiring, ironic (sometimes), fun and full of learning. I do not regret anything, and I hope that the person who is reading these words realizes that there are enough reasons around us to change the world. We do not need to go to NASA or China to realize it and want to make a change, just pay special attention to the small details, insights, that are there with the naked eye and sometimes hidden.

The current global situation will take us to a completely different era where technology and science will take on a more than fundamental role. So, learn, make and share as much as you can. We are living this and we have the world in our hands, we must do something good with it.

Thanks to AEXA for this space, my family and friends who have helped me so much. Virtual hugs.